Return of the Patriots
by kuroishuuha
Summary: When the Joui4 separated they thought there would never be anything that could bring them back together. They were wrong. When an old enemy returns with an unquenchable thirst for revenge, the four, once known as leaders during the war, must put aside their differences and unite to eliminate the enemy once and for all or risk losing the people they love. Collab with XxGintamaxX


**Disclaimer: We do not own Gintama**

**Don't forget to review .**

* * *

Gintoki would like to believe that the sound of the door opening woke him from his wonderful dream of unlimited parfaits and cartons of strawberry milk, but he would be lying to himself. Lately, for the past few weeks, he's been haunted by dreams of his past; images of bloodshed and death danced across his eyes and the lack of sleep had been catching up with him. He's been more paranoid than usual and has even stopped drinking his strawberry milk. But of course…he's been making sure that Kagura and Shinpachi haven't noticed anything; the last thing he wants is for them to worry.

"Gin-san are you awake yet? You need to get ready, a customer is on his way here!"

The sound of the closet door opening was immediately followed by a loud crash as Kagura was woken from her sleep, "Shut-up Shinpachi, Mami always told me that a girl needs her beauty sleep!"

"Kagura-chan, it's nearly two in the afternoon, you should have been up hours ago!"

Before the two could get into a fight which would surely result in more damage to his beloved shop, Gintoki got ready and pulled the two apart. He sighed as he placed the two children on opposite chairs and went to go get a drink of water to help his growing headache. As he filled the glass, the sound of a news report made him pause.

"_We apologize for interrupting your usual broadcast with breaking news. The mysterious deaths of people in neighboring towns has finally reached Kabukichou; the bodies of two people were found in the alleys this morning. Upon further investigation, the two victims were discovered to be members of the rebel group Joui…"_

Gintoki tuned the rest of the broadcast out as he glanced around warily; it wasn't unusual for there to be murders in the crime ridden town, but the fact that the two were former patriots caused an inkling of suspicion to arise.

Before he could ponder more on his doubts, the sound of a door opening caught his attention. A man entered the room and was quickly served water by Kagura and Shinpachi. Gintoki's eyes narrowed as he observed the man; cloaked in a heavy and dark hood, the man's appearance was all but hidden. Even his hands were wrapped in bandages…

His normally dull eyes sharpened in a rare show of seriousness.

When Kagura and Shinpachi turned towards him with smug looks on their faces, Gintoki prepared himself for a long day…

* * *

Gintoki picked up the heavy box, walking, well, waddling towards the huge dumpster in the alley. Gintoki wondered what was in the box for a second, but then decided not to care. He heaved the box in the dumpster with slight effort. It wasn't as if it was a body or anything…

The weird man, who stood just outside of the alley shuffled from one foot to the other. Gintoki narrowed his eyes. The man was so hard to read. Forget facial expressions, even his body language was hard to read. The man seemed to tilt his head as he spoke, his voice having that raspy tone. "I apologize for burdening you with this simple task; if I had known it would be this simple I wouldn't have bothered you."

Gintoki waved the man's apologies off with a slight shake of his head, "It's fine; I needed a job anyway."

While his voice betrayed no negative feelings, Gintoki's suspicion of the man had risen higher. Before he could voice his thoughts, the man interrupted him.

"As an apology, I wish to treat you to a parfait"

Gintoki, unable to resist the treat agreed…

* * *

The two men sat across from each other. Gintoki didn't want to risk having his back to the weird man, his old instincts screaming at him to get away. But this was a good time to study the man even further so Gintoki took a relaxing breath before ordering his chocolate parfait.

The man smiled.

The two just stared at each other for a few moments and just as Gintoki was about to speak, the parfait arrived. Glancing at the man one more time, Gintoki began to eat his parfait, pausing slightly before shrugging his shoulders and continuing. A parfait was a parfait…

It was ten minutes later that the two left the shop.

As Gintoki walked down the familiar path to his home he was overcome with dizziness. Gripping the walls for support, Gintoki drew his bokken and glared at the man who stood in front of him. Before the man could blink, Gintoki had stabbed his bokken through the man's shoulders, but the man merely smirked. He grabbed the silver-haired samurai's sword and threw it to the ground. In the blink of an eye, the man drew his arm back.

The silver-haired samurai's eyes widened as a spray of blood filled his vision. Succumbing to his wounds, Gintoki fell to the floor and glared at the man who began to remove his hood. Bandages covered the man's face, but Gintoki could tell the man had a vicious smirk on his face.

"You're like a child. Dangle sweets in front of their face and they... fall at your feet."

The last thing he saw before succumbing to his wounds was the glowing purple eyes of the figure in front of him…

* * *

Sakamoto laughed heartily as he was thrown out of a bar; He had once again caused a large commotion, and was promptly asked to leave. Mutsu was once again apologizing on her boss's behalf; Mutsu bowed to the manager before grabbing her boss and pulling him away. Sometimes she really hated her job…

As the two of them made their way towards the nearby inn, she was suddenly put off balance as Sakamoto ran off in a random direction. Sighing to herself, Mutsu followed her boss. Just as she was about to berate him for his childish behavior, Sakamoto's voice cut her off.

"Quiet!"

She paled when she heard his tone…it was wrong…it was cold, serious…and deadly. The voice sounded wrong on her usually childish captain, but instead of voicing her thoughts, she held her tongue and watched as Sakamoto took off his sunglasses and leaned down to pick up what looked like to be a wooden sword off the ground, and it was only then she smelled the sharp stench of blood. Blood littered the ground and covered the wooden sword.

"Sir, what's so important about tha…"

Her voice trailed off when she recognized the wooden sword, and she paled even further…Mutsu turned to her captain and flinched at the murderous look on his face. It was the eyes that scared her the most. The gentle eyes were sharp and cold.

"Sir, could it be…that _those_ people have finally made their move?"

Sakamoto gave no reply as he dialed two numbers

* * *

Three figures sat facing each other in the dimly lit room. One had a head of wild hair, the other long hair, and the last was slightly smaller than the other two. The moonlight broke through the clouds, revealing the faces of Katsura, Takasugi, and Sakamoto. While the first two had annoyed looks on their faces, Sakamoto had his signature grin, but the others in the room failed to notice how strained the grin was.

"Zura! Takachibi, long time no see!"

Takasugi glared and held his hands at the hilt of his sword; Katsura had a similar look on his face though he refrained from fingering his weapon. They had a rare agreement to meet with a no hostility treaty; they would be allowed to bring weapons of their choice as protection but they were not allowed to bring other people or try to kill the other two in the room.

"Bakamoto, you better have a good reason for calling us here" Katsura sighed in annoyance once he realized that there was no escaping the eccentric man.

"For once, Katsura, I agree"

Sakamoto laughed at the twin looks of annoyance, but once again the laugh sounded strained.

"Ahahaha, chill out; I want to talk about Kintoki!"

Takasugi grunted and Katsura sighed; they both made motions to leave when Sakamoto's voice stopped them cold. "Gintoki's in trouble."

There was something wrong with the tone of voice...it was dangerously serious. As the two turned to look at Sakamoto once more, they felt their stomachs drop. Sakamoto had long since taken off his sunglasses, but instead of his shining blue eyes filled with laughter, ice cold blue eyes shone with fury. His perpetual smile was gone and a frown marred his features. It looked wrong on the ever smiling face and that's when the two knew something was wrong.

The use of the silver-haired samurai's real name also indicated the serious nature of the situation.

Takasugi and Katsura narrowed their eyes and spoke at the same time. "Explain."

"I found his sword, the wooden one we all know he is fond of in a pool of blood, his own blood"

Takasugi scoffed, "So, he's always bleeding and breaking that sword"

"I analyzed the blood since it seemed to be congealing differently...and I found large amounts of a drug used to inebriate people...and that's not all. There were other blood stains...and it was Amanto blood...specifically, Enmi Blood..."

The room seemed to chill...

"The Shiroyasha's been captured by the enemy"

* * *

Gintoki winced at the pain that racked his body; he could tell that the amanto had done a great deal of damage to his body and idly wondered why they haven't killed him yet. Blood stained his clothes and his hair, and once again Gintoki's thoughts centered on how he would get the stains out. Drawing in a painful and shuttering breath, Gintoki kept his eyes on the door.

The doors opened with a creak and Gintoki glared at the dark figure, his vision blurred due to the bright white light and the blood in his eyes. He refused to give the man the satisfaction of seeing him in pain. But that only made the man…no amanto smile wider.

"My, my how the mighty have fallen. I guess even demons can bleed."

Gintoki spat a mouthful of blood at the amanto who looked at him with hate and disgust. Gintoki mentally smirked to himself at drawing such a reaction from the normally collected amanto.

"What are you after?"

"Ah, yes…the million yen question…"

Gintoki glared at the man, his normally dull red eyes were sharp and serious, "Answer me!"

The man smirked before turned away, just as he shut the doors, Gintoki heard one word that chilled his very soul...

**"War."**


End file.
